and passionless, dirty and bloody; the
electricity of life has gone from the air, and the wine of life-blood is
spilt, it seems, so needlessly upon the ground. Perhaps the spirits of
the dead linger over it. Their presence is instinctively felt. As,
overpowered with the sorrow of it, you pass by, the thought steals into
your mind, "When will my turn come?" This Aftermath of Battle is
assuredly the most awful thing in war.

As soon as the men began to scale the steep incline opposite, they saw
that the costs had not been paid by the British alone. Figures, covered
in most cases by their own grey overcoats, lay out upon the ground.
Leaning up against a wall a body was still lolling. It was a sight that
no one who saw it will ever forget. There was no head; it had been shorn
oft as cleanly as if the man had been guillotined. An unburst shell had
probably swept the man's head from his shoulders as he looked over the
wall, and the aimless-looking trunk was still leaning against the wall
as if "waiting for further orders."

The pursuit was continued until it was quite dark. The Companies wheeled
into the fields, and slept where they stood. The Colonel delivered a
short address, which showed that all was not as well as it looked. But
what really _did_ worry them was lack of straw. The Colonel was of the
opinion that the enemy would take his stand on the opposite bank of the
Marne, which, he told them, was only half a mile ahead. To-morrow there
would be a fight, the like of which neither they nor any one else had
seen before.

They were disturbed that night, not indeed by the fear of what to-morrow
might hold in store, but by a small stampede of escaped horses, who
careered madly over the sleeping lines, injuring one man very severely.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CROSSING OF THE MARNE

As soon as dawn broke--a dawn exceptionally cold and cheerless--the
cavalry pushed forward to effect some sort of reconnaissance. Meanwhile
the infantry had nothing better to do than to conceal themselves behind
the copses that covered the slope, and await their turn. In about an
hour's time they were deployed and moved cautiously forward to the
attack, the Batteries being already placed in readiness for the
beginning of the "show."

No army in the world can execute this movement as scientifically or as
safely as the British Army. Memories of South Africa and Indian frontier
fights have left us undoubtedly the finest scouting army in Eu